Friday 5 November 2010 14.31 EDT
First published on Friday 5 November 2010 14.31 EDT

Ofcom has kicked off its investigation into News Corporation's proposed takeover of BSkyB, outlining the areas it will scrutinise in testing the threat to media plurality, with submissions due by 19 November.

The media regulator also called for views about the "potential remedies or mitigations to any public interest concerns identified by interested parties". The referral of the deal to Ofcom by the business secretary, Vince Cable, has sparked speculation that News Corp will need to sell off some of its UK assets, such as Sky News, to win approval for the deal.

Ofcom said that in its investigation it will specifically consider content types, audiences, media platforms, control of media enterprises and future developments in the media landscape.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".